


Dancing Cheek to Cheek

by hopeless_eccentric



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Cooking, Dancing, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Femslash February, Femslash February 2021, Fluff, Married Couple, Married Life, that thing where you dance with someone in the kitchen. yeah, theyre MARRIED and theyre IN LOVE and UGH WOMEN
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:48:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29279442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopeless_eccentric/pseuds/hopeless_eccentric
Summary: It turned out the cooking was going far worse than expected. After a salt spill from what she could only imagine was Ransom’s attempt to help clean up dinner by shoving all the spices into the cabinet as if it were some kind of modern art exhibit demonstrating how close Vespa was to wringing his scrawny neck whenever they occupied a similar space, she came to the conclusion that there was nothing to do but start over. She was losing time, and with it, she was losing patience, faith, and frankly, all passion for cooking.At the very least, she was cooking alone. If there was one thing she couldn’t stand when a recipe was already going badly, it was anyone else taking up space in the kitchen. That seemed to be the only benefit to getting up to cook dinner at five in the morning.However, when a set of familiar footsteps pattered their way through the kitchen and a pair of robe-clad arms reached to slot themselves around her waist, Vespa began to realize that her mind was far more mutable than she had initially thought.
Relationships: Buddy Aurinko/Vespa Ilkay
Comments: 13
Kudos: 36
Collections: The Penumbra Podcast Femslash February 2021!





	Dancing Cheek to Cheek

**Author's Note:**

> hey all!! this one's light and fun so hope you all like fluff!
> 
> Content warnings for food

Waking up early to start the kind of day-long sauce Vespa had considered a fitting celebration for a successful heist, wedding, and getaway seemed fine in concept. Years of heists and various other jobs made Vespa adept at getting sleep when she could, meaning it wasn’t too much of an issue to roll out of bed at some ungodly hour and get to far more strenuous things than cooking.

Despite that, there was something about being married that made it that much harder to roll out of bed. It wasn’t any less warm and Buddy’s grasp wasn’t any less wonderful, but there was something about the weight of the word ‘wife’ that convinced Vespa’s mind that leaving hers alone in bed when she had the option to cuddle with her was a mortal sin.

However, years of field medicine had brought her a certain amount of fortitude, so she had managed to weather the absolute agony of Buddy’s half-asleep and terribly bereft sigh as she committed the crime of trailing off towards the kitchen.

It turned out the cooking was going far worse than expected. After a salt spill from what she could only imagine was Ransom’s attempt to help clean up dinner by shoving all the spices into the cabinet as if it were some kind of modern art exhibit demonstrating how close Vespa was to wringing his scrawny neck whenever they occupied a similar space, she came to the conclusion that there was nothing to do but start over. She was losing time, and with it, she was losing patience, faith, and frankly, all passion for cooking.

At the very least, she was cooking alone. If there was one thing she couldn’t stand when a recipe was already going badly, it was anyone else taking up space in the kitchen. That seemed to be the only benefit to getting up to cook dinner at five in the morning.

However, when a set of familiar footsteps pattered their way through the kitchen and a pair of robe-clad arms reached to slot themselves around her waist, Vespa began to realize that her mind was far more mutable than she had initially thought.

Vespa absolutely hated cooking with other people nearby, let alone touching her. She also disliked cooking this early in the morning. However, with her wife humming a sleepy greeting into her shoulder and palpably smiling through it all, Vespa couldn’t find a bone in her body that disliked the contact.

In fact, when Buddy yawned out a sound as sweet as wedding bells, Vespa felt her shoulders droop with her sympathetic exhale, the crawling pain of stress dissipating.

“Morning, Bud,” Vespa chuckled. “Didn’t think you’d be helping me cook.”

“You know me well enough to know I’m not letting a simple food allergy get in the way of spending time with my wife,” Buddy smiled, saying Vespa’s title so fondly that Vespa could have sworn her heart dropped straight out of her chest for a moment.

“Don’t tell me I’m keeping you up.”

“I’m all too happy to be awake and spending time with you, darling,” Buddy chuckled.

“You’re asleep on your feet,” Vespa snorted.

“Perhaps ‘awake’ is one of those words that addresses a spectrum, rather than a singular, absolute state,” Buddy proposed.

When Buddy pulled her closer by the waist and pressed her head into her shoulder, Vespa made the staunch decision not to start discussing the semantics of phraseology. Awake, asleep, or in some transient stage between, Buddy seemed as if she would rather breathe in the scent of the meal and Vespa’s shampoo and bask in the feeling of the two of them pressed together.

“I don’t really like waking up this early, but if you’re gonna start getting all sweet on me every time I’ve gotta cook, I might just start doing it more often,” Vespa chuckled.

“Aren’t I allowed to miss my darling wife?”

“You’ve missed me enough for a lifetime, Bud,” Vespa smiled, any subsequent words dropping dead on her lips when Buddy returned her sentiment with a gentle kiss to the base of her neck. It was nothing less than chaste, but the sensation still made something warm bloom in her chest, just on account of the fact that the lips pressing against her pulse point just to venerate her still-beating heart were those of Buddy Aurinko.

“A thousand lifetimes,” Buddy hummed against her shoulder. “Do you think you’ll come back to bed once your work is done?”

Vespa tilted her head in thought, certainly not so Buddy’s lips could climb higher to that spot they always found that would make her squirm and laugh at the ticklish sensation. Buddy did not pursue it, however, merely watching her with wide, bleary eyes.

“I dunno,” Vespa thought aloud. “I might be too awake by then, you know?”

“Then when do you think you’ll get your next break?”

Vespa paused to check her watch, one of the few relics of her younger years that had somehow managed to survive all that time with her. She supposed it made sense, as Buddy had bought it for a birthday two decades prior, saying Vespa deserved something as practical, beautiful, and resilient as she.

“All I need to do is stir occasionally until it starts changing color,” Vespa considered. “Why?”

Buddy slinked one arm away from her waist to reach for her comms. Vespa could only mourn the absence for a moment, for the sinking of her heart at the loss of one of those warm, gentle arms was paused by the familiar sound of a song they used to dance to a million years ago, lilting its way out of Buddy’s comms.

“It’s quiet enough not to wake anybody,” Buddy smiled, turning to set the comms down on the counter before taking Vespa by the hands and spinning her around so they would face one another. “We never got our first dance together.”

“Right now? I mean, I kinda spilled some flour a minute ago, and it’s definitely in my hair,” Vespa chuckled. “I dunno if you want me to clean myself up or something first.”

“The Vespa Ilkay I fell in love with is not always going to look ready for a wedding,” Buddy returned gently. “I would assume part of loving anybody is knowing that. Now, may I have this dance?”

“God, I’m in love with you,” Vespa said instead of replying, though they both knew well she meant yes.

Buddy took her by the hand and began to sway, not moving more than a few inches in either direction. As the formal space and arrangement of arms began to collapse with time and bars of music, it seemed less and less like they were actually walking through any steps at all. By the time the song came to a close, pausing before Buddy’s comms could repeat it, Vespa felt as if they were merely breathing in time with one another, holding each other close and relishing in the feeling of their mismatched heartbeats pressed against one another.

When the natural lights of the ship began to brighten through a loving homage to the sunrise, much in the way the sunrise was a flimsy parody of Buddy Aurinko’s smile, Vespa felt the exhaustion tugging at her begin to wane. The same seemed to be true for Buddy, whose energy picked up enough that she reached for the comms and changed the music to a far more upbeat song that played much better to the gentle accompaniment of hushed jokes and the laugh that sputtered out of Vespa’s chest whenever Buddy sent her for an unexpected spin.

Even if she trusted the sauce to merely simmer on the stove behind her, Vespa almost didn’t care if it burned. For all she cared, the sun could blink out, and it wouldn’t matter, for Buddy Aurinko was holding her close and smiling with her all through their first proper dance together as wives.

Vespa didn’t care if their first dance wasn’t traditional. There wasn’t much traditional about the two of them. There never had been and there never would be.

They carved their own paths in whatever ways they could, from high-stakes thefts to dancing around the kitchen while the rest of the crew was still asleep. It was these little rebellions that Vespa clung to whenever her superstitions got the best of her.

Perhaps the road would not always be clear for the two of them. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t pave their own roads around it all, and it certainly didn’t mean they wouldn’t do so hand in hand.

**Author's Note:**

> :') women
> 
> Thank you all so much for reading!! Make sure to SMASH that kudos button and leave a comment down below or ill steal your wife
> 
> Check me out on tumblr @hopeless-eccentric or on twitter @withane22 !!


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